Honey Schnapps - Healing Properties, Preparation, usage and reciepe

Honey schnapps, honey liqueur…. is a natural traditional beverage that originates from southern Europe. It is known that a similar beverage was prepared during the time of ancient Romans. It is manufactured in almost all countries of the world. Many out of ignorance liqueur-schnapps made from honey call “Mead”. Namely “Mead” is a name for a wine with addition of honey while honey schnapps or liqueur (schnapps made from plum, pear, quince and apricot) is enriched with honey. Depending on the amount, quality of the type of the honey that is placed at the base you get a really nice color with a mild smell of honey.

By adding propolis into a finished product before fermentation in a barrel we get a healing beverage of pleasant, slightly bitter taste. Quality of honey schnapps is produced by its aging and a barrel for 2 years and more. It is important to mention that containers with honey schnapps during aging should in a room without presence of other schnapps or groceries, so that it does not picks up the smell. Finished schnapps is usually filled in appropriate souvenir bottles. Content of alcohol is around 16-25%, and sometimes even 40%. In one liter of schnapps to get the appropriate aroma and color you should add around 1.50-2.00 kg of 3-4 types of honey.
Darker types will give a darker finished color, while lighter types like acacia give a lighter color.

HEALING PROPERTIES OF PREPARATION AND USE

Honey schnapps is from a category of liqueur that throughout history was highly valued for its healing property. It is produced by distillation of honey solution and water that fermented for 72 days. After distillation you add an appropriate type of honey and propolis. It has a very pleasant taste even with its strength that is felt in the stomach. In moderate amounts it favorably influences the circulation, fights bacteria and viruses and improves appetite and digestion, so it is an ideal aperitif. It is consumed chilled.

Few people actually know that honey schnapps originates from the area that was settled by Ancient Slavs and that is regarded as one of the oldest drinks. It can be said that the honey schnapps was the ancient drink of Ancient Slavs. For Slavs honey was a basic food-best food and drink.

Compared to alcohol drinks. The effect of honey schnapps is surprising and miraculous. Honey schnapps gives alertness, joy, and calms you down without numbing, weakening you. After its use there is no headache, nausea, fatigue. To the contrary, honey schnapps used in appropriate measure gives strength and health, and Slavs didn’t use it in excessive amounts.
Slavs countries filled with strong lindens, for honey bees where an ideal residence. Long cold winter enabled the bees to get the best honey, in large amounts. In 18 century, they often found hollowed out tree trunks, that bees abandoned ling ago, with 240-320 kg of good honey in a comb.

Various beverages are made from honey: starting with yeast and beer with 10 percent alcohol, to light and middle honey schnapps with 10-20 percent of alcohol, do strong honey schnapps with 20-50 percent alcohol. Slavs makers of honey schnapps carefully, cleaned pollen that is always present in honey schnapps and spoils it. To fast fermentation of the compound also leads to the occurrence of harmful ingredients, aldehydes. Such honey schnapps was called unfinished and was considered to be harmful. Slavs, while preparing strong honey schnapps, slowed down the fermentation in every way possible. To achieve this, they buried the fermented honey in the ground in cold and dry areas. In southern countries, creation of long-term conditions to properly ferment strong honey schnapps was impossible. But in southern countries, a lot of plants that give sweet fruits and plant juices from which wines were created that were sometimes added to honey schnapps.

Thanks to a absolute purity of bee’s honey, it alcohol fermentation is done almost without forming harmful side-ingredients. One of main properties of alcohol is the ability to strengthen the effect of ingredients that accompany it, useful and harmful.
This effect of alcohol explains the dizziness, weakness and drunkenness that accompany majority of alcohol beverages. Increased use of alcohol increased the addiction to it, but alcohol also causes some healing effects.

Sweet honey schnapps by itself healing properties. Processed honey increases it healing property, something that was very well known in Mediterranean.
Strong honey schnapps was valued as gold and was the main object of export until the 14 century, while French alchemists and Italian monks didn’t find the replacement for honey-“aqua vita; water of life or brandy spirits. It was pronounced as a cure for all illness.

The occurrence of beer in 12 century and vodka in 15 century, would not damage, strong honey schnapps, if the government, dazed by new beverages, hadn’t start to fight against bee keeping and honey schnapps.

Every ancient people has it national beverage: English and Germans-beer, Mediterranean people-grape wine, Chinese and Japanese-rise wine, Mongols- koumiss, Russian-vodka and Slavs-honey schnapps. The thing is that Slav people represent the original bee keeping civilization.

Honey schnapps is a alcohol beverage, fruit based distillation, honey, healing properties and propolis. It can be different in taste depending on the base, that is, fruit from which it is made. Most often the base is the apple, but it can be produced from plum, apricot, melon…

HOW DO YOU PREPARE HONEY SCHNAPPS-RECIPE

To prepare honey schnapps you don’t need large culinary skills… all you need is a little patience and time that the result will come on its own.

For this recipe you need:

800dl of schnapps made from apple or grape, 360-400 grams of honey, 2 vanilla sticks (dr. Oetker), lemon or orange bark, 2dl white wine, several leaves of fresh mint and around 30 minutes of your time.

1. In pot pour 1 dl distilled water (or boil 1 dl of water);
2. Then add half a jar of honey and mix until the honey melts completely;
3. Then add schnapps and bark and mix it really good;
4. When the mix boils add 2 dl of wine and vanilla stick. BE SURE to cover it and leave it on the fire for a couple of more minutes;
5. When it is cooled add mint. It would be ideally to sift it through gauze and only then pour it in a bottle;
6. This prepared wine should be left to stay for about two months and only then you should drink it.